How BottleRocker could've destroyed Streets of Rage

[cube_b3]

You all know I find Simon Jeffery the worst Sega President, well it is a close tie with Bernie maybe.

Anyway as you know Simon Jeffert successfully destroyed Golden Axe by handing it on a silver platter to Shitty Level.

A brief history:

In 2008 Sega was actively participating in discussions with a third-party developer, BottleRocket Entertainment, to produce a game called "Streets of Rage Online" for next-gen systems, most likely the XBox360 and PlayStation3. Artist Roger Robinson, of Marvel Comics fame, was asked to produce some concept art for the proposal, but unfortunately the whole thing fell through not too long after. Roger Robinson later 'declassified' the art he produced (BottleRocket Entertainment went bust and their other game, a Splatterhouse remake, was picked up by Namco):



SOR Online Concept 2: Street Thug
http://www.streetsofrage.net/Streets...r_Robinson.jpg

SOR Online Concept 3: Axel
http://www.streetsofrage.net/Streets...r_Robinson.jpg

Once again, the possibility of a next-gen SOR was shelved, and it was back to the drawing board.

In 2009, Golden Axe was given a next-gen revamp on Sony's PlayStation 3 console. Like Sega's previous attempts at resurrecting 'Altered Beast' and 'Shinobi' on the PS2, this game was notoriously awful and a discredit to the Mega Drive originals. But still, there was no sign of any SOR4.

That said, by this point Sega seemed to definitely have its mind set on resurrecting the game, and perhaps in a tentative first move the original SOR trilogy was released on a "Sega Classics Collection" on the PS3 and XBOX360. They were also released on XBox Live Arcade and Wii Virtual Console through streaming, digital distribution. Additionally, the original SOR title was given a release on mobile phone and iPod. Then in Japan they even produced a java-based SOR remake called Bare Knuckle Mobile. It seemed that Sega was doing everything the SOR fans wanted - EXCEPT MAKE SOR4!

In March 2010, Sega's boss in the West, Mike Hayes, alluded to the possibility that there was still a chance for the now-mythical sequel to see the light of day - and that it would be good. He said in a CVG Interview: "It's important [with] our old IP that is respected, we need to deliver a good product. And in some instances we have done that - look back at when we re-did Sega Rally. It scored well and was moderately successful commercially. But then with other great franchises like Golden Axe we didn't produce a great game at all. Going forward, if we're going to look at any existing IP to bring out the locker, we have to make sure we get the quality to a level we now expect. I'm not saying which IP it would be - a Streets Of Rage, a Crazy Taxi, whatever. What we have to do now is build something that is 85 per cent plus [rated]. We can't just get away with PR."


The current status of Streets of Rage 4 is unknown, but it seems very likely that Sega will start work on this game again soon. Their recent releases seem to indicate that they are testing the market for its response and demand to SOR games, trying to ascertain whether a true next-gen sequel would be commercially viable. And certainly they have been actively pursuing the idea for some time now.

Personally I want ANCIENT to choose who they want to work with back in the 2nd Party days they expressed interest in working with Noriyoshi Oba as he was involved in the series and Ayano Koshiro (Yuzo's sister) was also at OverWorks, Noriyoshi even told IGN he was intrested in developing to for PS2.

* Ayano Koshiro revealed to SegaWeb (now Kikizo) that she has already designed 5 new characters for SOR4.

I think in 2002 or 03 ANCIENT expressed intrest in working with Hisao Oguchi/Mie Kumagi of Hitmaker after being impressed with their work on Xbox.
_______________________

I would like the orignal people to be involved in this game, ANCIENT is doing well on the inde-scene.

Here's a look at the disaster pieces made by Bottle Rocket


I really don't like their animation style, and I hate Axel covered in Tatto's.

[Sharky]

If Streets of Rage ever came back...

I want it to be in 2D, sprites... maybe made by WayForward, Treasure or Arc Systems.

If they insist on making a new 3D game then a heavily modified version of the fighting engine in Yakuza would be the only thing I would like.

[Orta]

Links are broken.

[Sega Uranus]

BottleRocket might not be making Splatterhouse anymore, but the last time I saw it I was fairly impressed. I hate the look of Axel in that art posted though.

With Streets of Rage, I am not sure. I think regardless of the quality the title is well known enough to sell on it's own and SEGA should have made a game by now.

It is like one of those brands by SEGA that everyone knows and most people seem to love, but no one actually is making any sequels, like Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Vectorman, Crazy Taxi or even Ecco the Dolphin. All of these IPs always have done great. It really makes no sense to me as to why SEGA has not brought this all back. Something like a new Xbox Live Arcade Vectorman would be such a huge hit and is so easy to make... If SEGA keeps wasting their time, people will just move on.

[crackdude]

"Something like a new Xbox Live Arcade Vectorman would be such a huge hit and is so easy to make..."
Like if anyone still remembers/gives a crap about Vectorman besides Sega fans.

And I still don't think Sega would do any better than Beats of Rage does on the Dreamcast.
Would only work if it used nice 32bit sprites or something.

[Sega Uranus]

Like if anyone still remembers/gives a crap about Vectorman besides Sega fans.

You have no idea man. One time I was talking to a friend in a store about Genesis collection on the Xbox 360 and someone from the other side of the room who was buying music heard me mention Vectorman, came over and was extremely ecstatic to hear about Vectorman in it that he even called his friend in the middle of the store and ended up buying two copies of the collection, one for his friend. The cashier was excited when he found out about it too and bought one for himself even! I have seen this kind of thing before and have had other friends tell me of similar stories.

Vectorman is a very memorable character, pretty much everyone I have met at least knows of him even if they do not play games.

[Orta]

Vectorman is the kind of game I always wanted to like. But I never got along with it.



Vectorman is cool man.

[crackdude]

I know Vectorman is a pretty cool guy. Although the games aren't my cup of tea it's still fun and looks amazing.

But I've really never knew ANYONE who knows about it besides dudes that were hardcore Sega back in 1997 or so.
And even them go like "yea, Vectorman was cool.." and..that's it.

I do not have a mental image of a lot of people caring about him.

[Autosaver]

I only played Vectorman because I had Gems collection. And yes, it was amazing.

[Centrale]

The main thing that was amazing about Vectorman, to me, was that it was running on a Genesis.  The character him(it?)self was a complete cypher.

[cube_b3]

Maybe I should rename the thread "how Pseudo Interactive could've destroyed VectroMan?"

Just imagine, Simon Jeffery agreed to release Golden Axe & Iron Man, how bad would it have to be for him to pull the plug on Vectroman?

I am not exactly sure what happen with bottle rocket's crap of rage, was it their bankruptcy or was it Mike Hayes quality control?

Let's note that unlikely Jeffery, Hayes is smarter with words to date he has never said SL was shuttered cause Iron Man 2 was shit, he came up with the whole thing about making the west digital and what not.

Turns out most of the digital content is done at SOS.

[crackdude]

>Simon Jeffrey
>Quality Control
>Sonic 06

There was some footage of Vectorman on the PS2. It was horrible!

It would be pretty cool if they made something out of it today!

[Sega Uranus]

Vectorman was supposed to come back like five years ago, but the backlash was so hard against the design and overall look that it was canned.

[youtube:np4veoal]93c8N97xu68[/youtube:np4veoal]

I think it looked like it could have been alright, just looked nothing like Vectorman in any way. Shinobi on PlayStation 2 had a similar backlash.

Something I really liked about the Vectorman games (yeah, even 2) was how the level design was kind of like old Sonic stuff, where you could go really far down in the level and there were more and more things to find. It could be improved upon though.

Streets of Rage on the other hand, I think 2 is pretty much the best beat em up ever and do not know how they can improve on this or make it around the same kind of quality. It would be hard to do. If they do it, pretty sure it is going to be a big action game on the HD consoles, which is worrying.

[MadeManG74]

Streets of Rage on the other hand, I think 2 is pretty much the best beat em up ever and do not know how they can improve on this or make it around the same kind of quality. It would be hard to do. If they do it, pretty sure it is going to be a big action game on the HD consoles, which is worrying.

I always thought of Yakuza as being a modern-day equivalent to Streets of Rage. While they would need big changes, I think they could use Yakuza as a basis for a Streets game.

Knowing Sega though, they'll probably have some small team make their own brand new engine instead.

[ROJM]

VECTORMAN PS2 got unfare criticism, it was an early build and what they were trying to acheive was interesting, even the original creators seemed to like it as well as IGN who apparently played it. People hated it because they didn't like the Halo esque nature to the game. But VM and TJAE are one of the most requested games from Sega fans behind the big three most requested Sega games.

Apart from that the new SOR game that Yuzo wanted to do with hitmaker was earmarked for Xbox not the PS2. But the pitch to the suits didn't meet approval apparently.

The sad truth is Sega's seemed to have moved beyond SOR now. Even if they brought it back would it even be the game you lot want? Look at SHINOBI. Good solid game 3D game but was it the shinobi game sega fans wanted? PROJECT ALTERED BEAST was the same.I had more fun with the GBA version since it was closer to the original in style. But the sad truth is sega doesn't seem to be capable of giving these games the development and platform they need and deserve and in AP case catching lighting in a bottle was obviously a once in a lifetime moment for that title. Time to move on and remember these games in their old glory before we have a situation like we have with the SHINING FORCE series where its been totally blighted by the new games which some say has also happened with the PHANTASY STAR series since it went online. You can't please all the peeps all the time.